1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an accommodation apparatus to accommodate an electronic unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an electronic apparatus to be installed in an information processing apparatus, that is, an electronic unit is mainly a one-plane mount structure or a two-plane mount structure. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in the one-plane or two-plane mount structure, printed circuit boards 12 are arranged on one plane or two planes of a backboard 10 through connectors 11. The printed circuit boards 12 are vertically arranged on the surface of the backboard 10. Such an information processing apparatus that the printed circuit boards 12 are installed on both sides necessitates maintenance from the front and back planes of the apparatus.
However, in recent years, for a high density mounting, it is requested to install the printed circuit boards, as shown in FIG. 5. An electronic unit 54 shown in FIG. 5 needs maintenance from four planes of front, back, upward, and downward planes. The structure of the electronic unit 54 is assembled as follows. First, LSIs 2 are installed on one plane of each of motherboards 1 (1a and 1b) as shown in FIG. 3. Next, as shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of the printed circuit boards 4 are installed through connectors 3 (3a and 3b) on the other plane of the motherboard 1, that is, a back plane on which the LSIs 2 are installed. The printed circuit boards 4 are arranged in the vertical direction to the motherboard 1 through the connectors 3. Referring to FIG. 5, another motherboard 1 on which LSIs 2 are arranged on one plane is arranged in parallel to the motherboard 1.
Here, the electronic unit shown in FIG. 5 will be described in detail. In FIG. 5, the motherboards 1a and 1b are circuit boards on which the connectors 3a and 3b are installed. The printed circuit board 4 is a circuit board on which electronic parts such as LSIs 2 are mounted. An air-cooling system is necessary to cool the parts since the electronic parts such as the LSIs 2 generate heat. The motherboards 1a and 1b includes the connectors 3a and 3b, and wiring patterns (not shown). The connectors 3a are arranged adjacent to the connectors 3b on the motherboards 1a and 1b. Specifically, a row of the connectors 3b is arranged adjacent to the row of the connectors 3a on a lower side of it. Regions for the connectors 3a and 3b may overlap. In such a case, the connectors 3a and 3b are alternately arranged. The connector 3a and the connector 3b are arranged in approximately parallel to each other. However, the direction to insert the printed circuit board 4 into the connector 3a is opposite to the direction to insert the printed circuit board 4 into the connector 3b. Therefore, a different kind of printed circuit boards 4 are possibly inserted from both ends of the motherboards 1a and 1b. The printed circuit boards 4 inserted in the connectors 3b and the printed circuit boards 4 inserted in the connectors 3a can be electrically connected to each other through the motherboards 1a or 1b. The structure shown in FIG. 5 may be modified such that the connectors 3a are arranged in a region adjacent to the longer side of the connectors 3b. 
Next, the connector 3 will be simply described bellow. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the connector 3. The connector 3 is supported on the motherboard 4 as a support member. The connector 3 is a female connector 62. The female connector 62 has an opening 67 in one shorter side to receive the edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4. Guides 68 extend along the longer side of the female connector 62 from the opening 67. The printed circuit board 4 is slid in the longitudinal direction of the female connector 62 along the guides 68. The guides 68 guide the printed circuit board 4 to an engagement position. The connector 3 shown in FIG. 6 has a fixing part to fix the edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4 to the female connector 62 at the engagement position of the connector 3. The fixing part includes a terminal opening and shutting part 64 and terminals 63. The terminals 63 can fix or release the edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4 according to the operation of the terminal opening and shutting part 64.
The opening and shutting part 64 is operated when the edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4 is inserted into the female connector 62, or the edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4 is released or pulled out from the female connector 62. The terminals 63 are opened in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the female connector 62 through the operation of the opening and shutting part 64.
On the other hand, when the edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4 is fixed to the female connector 62, the opening and shutting mechanism 64 is operated again. The terminals 63 are closed into the direction perpendicular to the female connector 62 through the operation of the opening and shutting part 64. The printed circuit board 4 has terminals 65 to be connected with the female connector 62 along the edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4. The edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4 is inserted from the opening 67 of the female connector 62 when the terminals 63 of the female connector 62 are opened. The edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4 is slid into the female connector 62 in the longitudinal direction of the female connector 62. When the printed circuit board 4 is inserted to the engagement position, the terminals 65 of the printed circuit board 4 and the corresponding terminals 63 of the connector 62 face to each other at the engagement position. After the printed circuit board 4 has been inserted to the engagement position, the opening and shutting part 64 is operated. The terminals 63 are closed through the operation of the opening and shutting part 64. The edge 69 of the printed circuit board 4 is fixed to the female connector 62 according to the closed state of the terminals 63. Thus, the terminals 63 and the terminals 65 are respectively connected electrically.
The printed circuit board 4 has terminals 65 at both ends when each of the motherboards 1 has the connectors, as shown in FIG. 5.
When the electronic unit shown in FIG. 5 is installed in the conventional accommodation apparatus, maintenance from four planes are needed of planes on which the LSIs 2 are installed, and planes for inserting and pulling out the printed circuit boards 4. In this case, a maintenance space cannot be secured when a plurality of accommodation apparatuses are provided adjacent to each other. Therefore, the plurality of accommodation apparatuses are arranged not to be adjacent. Thus, it is hard to provide many accommodation apparatuses in a limited space.
In conjunction with the above description, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P2000-353883A) discloses an electronic apparatus and a maintenance method in order to solve the problem of securing the maintenance space. This conventional example aims improvement of accommodation efficiency of the electronic apparatus and simplification of the maintenance. A unit is rotated in the front direction.
Also, Japanese Laid Open Utility Model Application (JP-U-Showa 64-6084) discloses a rotation setting mechanism of an electronic unit chassis. This application aims to facilitate check and maintenance of the electronic unit in a narrow space such as inside of a ship. The electronic unit chassis includes slide rails and a rotation shaft. The electronic unit chassis is maintained from a single plane of the chassis from which circuit boards are installed. The electronic unit chassis is pulled out in the front direction of a cabinet by using slide rails provided on the both sides of the electronic unit chassis. In addition, the electronic unit chassis is inclined to the front direction. The inclination of the electronic unit chassis is set to an optional angle within the range of 90°. As a result, the check and maintenance can be carried out by connecting a test board with the circuit board from the front direction.
Also, Japanese Laid Open Utility Model Application (JP-U-A-Heisei 1-93778) discloses an accommodation pulling-out mechanism. This conventional example aims to improve maintenance efficiency of an apparatus. Guide foots are provided for each of electronic units accommodated in a chassis to support rotation of the unit in a vertical direction. Also, guide grooves are provided on a base as a bottom section of the chassis. By providing the guide foots on the guide grooves, the electronic unit can be moved along the guide grooves in the chassis, and can be rotated around the vertical axis. As a result, it is no need to pull out the electronic unit to outside of the chassis every time the maintenance is carried out.